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V-Ray and Unreal

We're always looking to expand our knowledge and skillset and the move from traditional renders to something real-time has always been on our mind. As such the news that Vray is being incorporated into Unreal is something we're really excited about. Unreal's image potential is already great and some of the tools it has are top of the line. Still, the image quality has not been up to par when compared to a traditional renderer and lacks the photo feel that clients sometimes demand. Any step to bridge this gap is one we'd gladly support and speaking from a VR standpoint - interactivity is becoming more and more of a must that can only traditionally be done in a game engine. This integration of Unreal and Vray allows both interactivity and stunning imagery to exist together.

Currently talked about existing features are the import and export of .vrscene files and of course rendering in the Unreal editor. Potential future features include custom shader for VRayMtl and a custom baking engine bypassing lightmass. The ability to easily import and export will really help from the artist side of things, allowing many traditional lighting and shading artist to move back and forth even without prior knowledge of Unreal, increasing the amount of talent who would traditionally be turned off by the words "game engine"

Bringing photo-realistic ray-traced rendering to a game engine is nothing short of game-changing. It's not just the visual fidelity that excites us but also the ability to use Unreal's powerful tools; population and vertex painting to name a few, in a nearly seamless manner. Overall we're interested in where things are headed and the potential of a stronger workflow because of this, especially in VR.